Peter Crookes - The Japan Times

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Dec 12, 2007

Gadgetry supports the lazy, and Polaroid launches an iPod-friendly DVD player

Beam me everywhere, Scotty: Laziness is an industry in itself, and, judging by the gadgets that we crave, we are working rather hard to not work hard. Or maybe it is just the pursuit of versatility; why have just one way of doing something when we can create dozens of ways of fulfilling our wishes? Whatever...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Dec 5, 2007

Phones get both weirder and simpler; everything else becomes waterproof

Boning up on new tech: Call me old fashioned, but I like to hear sounds with my ears. Progress, however, is no fan of nostalgia, and so the bone-induction trend continues. NTT DoCoMo ups the ante with its Sound Leaf Plus keitai (cell phone) accessory, due out in February for around ¥13,000. The device,...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Nov 28, 2007

Online goes HD, palm PCs go green

Hail HD: Sony is out to worship at the altar of high-definition. Its eyeVio video-sharing site has started up an HD TV service, which will allow users to put their offerings on public display in the super-resolution of 1280x720 pixels from spring 2008. Sony is also marketing its new BRX-NT1 network set-top...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Nov 21, 2007

Save a bomb and warm your bones this winter

Saving can hurt: With Christmas on the way, it's time to get saving those pennies. Toymaker Tomy is offering to help with its bomb-shaped piggy bank. Looking like one of the ancient black bowling-ball-type bombs beloved of cartoons past, it comes complete with a white skull-and-crossbones motif and a...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Nov 7, 2007

Nintendo lets you touch that dial

Tuning in: Nintendo's DS hand-held games console will get a 1SEG TV tuner as an accessory from Nov. 20 (although you can order it from Nov. 8). DS Terebi will allow you to watch digital TV almost anywhere in Japan on the upper screen of your DS, with the console's touch-screen doing duty as the television...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Oct 31, 2007

New gadget for beer promotion gives whiff of things to come

Nose for innovation: Sales campaigns have traditionally focused on just one of the five senses. Retailers love to deck out their products in eye candy — some of it even connected to the offerings on sale — to attract the attention of the shopping public. The sense of hearing also gets some attention,...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Oct 24, 2007

From WiFi digital radio to PCs maid in Akihabara

Radio star: Television did not kill off radio, but it knocked it from the top perch in the entertainment food chain and forced it to change immensely. The iPod revolution, however, has rather surprisingly breathed new life into the old medium. Internet radio brings the world's music to you, quite literally....

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Oct 17, 2007

From Big Brother marketing tools to powered Kitty-chan collectibles

Looks alone might not determine a person's character, but for marketing they are at least a good start. NEC certainly believes in the power of appearances, with its new FieldAnalyst camera. The device, in essence, judges passersby on the basis of their looks, determining their gender and approximate...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Oct 10, 2007

Trash can's size adjusts to your trash; MP3 player one-fifth as thick as iPod

Trash suffers so much at our hands. We inflict the twin insults of scorn and apathy on it, despising our refuse and really not caring too much just how it is removed from our presence. Just think how many research grants are devoted to building the better mousetrap, while we just treat our trash cans...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Sep 26, 2007

Back-chatting TVs and translating photocopiers

Bridging the gaps between the multiple towers of Babel that are modern languages has traditionally relied on software. Whether this be organic software, as in humans and their linguistic skills, or computers with their still relatively primitive ability to translate from one language to another. Fuji...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Sep 19, 2007

Automatic sushi machine, simple soba noodle maker

Many of us possess all the culinary abilities of an aardvark. Bandai Namco is not about to have Michelin knocking on our doors to try out for its restaurant guide, but it at least promises to enable us to make sushi. The toy maker does this with its new automatic sushi roller. The little orange machine...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Sep 12, 2007

Burn CDs from old records; copy audiotapes to computer

They don't make 'em to last any more. Well, in truth, capitalism never intended any product to last forever; making things that never need replacing is after all a lousy business strategy. While that may be understandable, one of the more insidious tricks of capitalism is to get consumers to indulge...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Sep 5, 2007

Robokitties, Hello Dr. Kitty

Space is not so much the final frontier as the last aggravation that drives you to the bottle in a Tokyo apartment. Short of a rich relative passing on their fortune, or robbing a bank, you won't be getting any more of it. So, you just have to get creative with what little you do have. In keeping with...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Aug 29, 2007

Save the planet: wind-powered toys and PC ways to catch insects

A nimal rights are as important to me as they are to the next Homo sapien. But I draw the line at in sects inflicting their unwanted presence on me, mosquitoes most especially spring to mind. Frankly, the first solution that comes to mind is finding use No. 1,001 for a newspaper. Those who prefer a less...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Aug 22, 2007

Multitasking watches and solar iPod rechargers

No craze is complete without its own gadgets. This new Sudoku aid looks just like another Japanese obsession — the "keitai" — with players using the number keypad to enter their sudoku answers. It costs ¥1,029, with more information available at item.rakuten.co.jp/wnd-minakuru/4582256_900052/. If...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Aug 15, 2007

Air-conditioned neckties, AERO multifunction iPod docks

Cool Biz is not a principle that your average Japanese salaryman is going to embrace without a robust philosophical debate. A key impediment to his embracing of the green logic is the necktie. If he could have it surgically attached, I do believe that he would. Thanko is giving the poor guy an option...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Aug 8, 2007

Cell phones may turn into boomboxes

Batteries just don't generate the respect they deserve. Imagine how much poorer your lifestyle would be if all of the miniature power cells you use just up and disappeared. Panasonic, as one of the many companies whose profit margins very much rest on these humble gadgets, knows their value and often...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Aug 1, 2007

Yamanote Line clocks — perfect for torturing Tokyo commuters

C locks make marvelous torture de vices. For sheer infliction of pain it's hard to top a creation that's dedicated to wrenching you out of your hard-won sleep. Throw in the fact that they insist on rousing you in time to cram yourself into a sardine can on wheels known as a train and you are adding pain...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jul 25, 2007

Glowing mini-fridge/heater, the world's smallest robot

Miniature fans are just so standard fare as office accessories for the long hot days of summer. International Trading Kansai Co. has crafted something rather more compelling, a minifridge that looks like a giant egg. Available in 6-liter and 10-liter sizes, the gadget gives you the option of keeping...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jul 18, 2007

Mirror, mirror, in the phone and portable photo storage

Videophones might be the future of communication, but there is more than a whiff of narcissism about them. After all, whose self-image is such that they believe the person at the other end actually wants to gaze at their visage? Thanko is appealing to the powers of the ego with its Mirror WebCamera....

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